Sunday, December 21, 2008

I did it again. I get bored of the blog background. I thought this one was cute, and it was free. Kinda looks like fabric, which I like. The only thing I can't figure out is how to center the body. I used to have a sidebar too, but now it's at the bottom of the blog. What the heck? I also found this music wigget thingy. I'm not very technical. However, I am impressed with myself that I've figured out how to do as much as I have. I need to bug my sister. She's amazing at technical stuff! OOHHH JUDE????????

School wrapped up last Wednesday, I just received an email from my English teacher saying I got an A in her class. I'm so happy about that! I checked SRJC's website to see if Tom posted my Nutrition and Diet Therapy grade, but he hasn't yet. I'm hoping I got an A in that one too! It is nice to have some time off from school.

Thursday night Chris was feeling funny and complaining about back and neck pain. I felt his forehead, and sure enough....fever. 101.6 to be exact. The next day we went to the doctor. I feared he might have pneumonia, since the cough from his last illness seemed to be hanging on. The doctor though it might either be mono or strep throat, so he took a throat culture. It's strep. Poor kid! He's really responded well to the antibiotics. The doctor said he'd stop being contagious after 24 hours on the medicine. He also said if he had mono, Chris would probably break out in a rash in response to the antibiotics. They told me I may have it too. In my brain I'm picturing the can of diet Pepsi we shared a couple nights ago. Lovely! Sometimes I just don't listen to my inner germaphobe. I do feel tired, but not really sick tired. I think it's just from all the brain-strain the last few weeks of school have induced. I guess we will see. Mom was feeling crummy too, so I encouraged her to call her doctor. She really dug in her heals, but I told her that it's Friday and you don't want to be sick all weekend without medicine. She gets pneumonia every year. Turns out she was boarder-line, so she came home with antibiotics too. Too make matters worse, Friday was Dad's 84th birthday. We will make it up to him!

I found a really easy toffee recipe that used saltine crackers. You make a caramelly syrup and pour it over the saltines you've layed out in a jelly roll pan. You bake it and then take it out to cool for 5 minutes or so. Then you pour a bag of chocolate chips on top, let it melt, then spread the melty goodness across. Sounds good right? Not so good if you use jalapeno flavored saltines. That's right.....I was curious about the green flecks...but not curious enough to bother my sick mommy, or even taste one ahead of time. I think they would have been awesome.....minus the spiciness. Silly girl! I'll make some more when I get the right kind of cracker.

Here's the recipe if you'd like it.....I suggest plain saltines........

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line jelly roll pan or cookie sheet with foil and spray with non-stick spray. Lay a flat layer of crackers out on the foil. Melt the sugar and butter until a boil is reached. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 5-6 minutes or until mixture is thickened and sugar is completely dissolved. Pour this mixture over the crackers and spread to coat evenly. Bake for 5-8 minutes, or until the toffee becomes bubbly. After removing the pan from the oven, let it sit for 3-5 minutes. Sprinkle on the chocolate chips, let them soften and melt, and then spread them into an even layer. (You can add nuts, cracker crumbs, or whatever else floats your boat at this point.) Let cool and, if desired for expediting purposes, refrigerate until hardened. Break into pieces the size of your choice. I personally prefer a hand-sized chunk.